Analysis: 5 years of listening to an album a day

A fan's notes.

The idea/suggestion for me to start listening to an album a day came from my son Max.

Pre-pandemic, we were talking about music, and I casually mentioned to him that I was sort of losing my “inner fandom” as a result of how my music consumption was evolving. Not just because of the sheer increase in the volume of music available, and the increase of platforms for music discovery, but because of the increasing imbalance between my need to listen to music for my “job,” and the music I wanted to listen to and discover as a fan.

So he suggested that if I re-learn how to listen to a full album, something I found myself doing less and less of because of how streaming services focus on singles and not albums, that re-learning would increase my appreciation of music as a fan.

Guess what? It worked.

I’m from the album generation. Sure. I mean, songs still mean a lot, but I typically get more satisfaction from listening to a full album than I often do sifting through those arduous “49 songs you need to hear this week” lists (you know the ones I’m talking about.)

I started my Album A Day project on January 1, 2019. Thanks to the hard work of data analyst Bruce Segal, he’s been tracking and analyzing my consumption on Tableau Public.

What’s the album a day project say about my music listening?

• For starters, genre wise, I’m all over the place.

• I definitely listen to a lot more older music, however, increasingly, I’m listening to more new music - not just the “single” that the streaming services (and labels) are hyping. If there’s a song that hits my radar that I love, I’ll dig into the full album. I try to find the balance between a new song that I want in my life and a new artist I want to have in my life. Both are needed.

• I like jazz.

• I love Drake.

• 15 of the 16 artists whose records I have listened to the most in the last five years, I have seen live.

• I decide on what I want to listen to mostly based on mood or discovery. The increase of my appreciation of jazz over the years is probably influenced more by discovery than my mood.

Last year, for the first time I’ve been tracking an album a day, I made a Spotify playlist. Take a listen below. Or not.

2024’s album a day listening started off with a couple of jazz records, some classic rock, some Italian disco, and my first favorite new lp of the year by SPRINTS. It rocks hard.

You can follow my 2024 Album A Day playlist here.